I haven't written here for a while. A lot of changes have been going on behind the scenes for me. Around the time that I wrote my last entry I was brought into a new team within ISV Developer Relations at IBM. As a result, I am no longer editor for the Linux and Open Source content on developerWorks. This is bittersweet for me, as I really enjoyed helping authors to shape their information to share with people who want to learn. In my little intro on this blog I mention that I am really passionate about Linux and Open Source. This is not hyperbole. I've run a Linux desktop for more than ten years. We have no Microsoft Windows or Mac OS in my house. Personally, I don't find this a hardship. I do pretty much what I want and need on my computers and don't seem to have the struggles that others do. (I'm hearing a story by one friend who has been through ten different Microsoft tech support people over a period of days still trying to get his Windows 8 activated. Bleh!)

I've always found that it wasn't that Linux and open source couldn't do things that people needed, but that they just weren't aware of what was available or how they had become tool-bound. Perhaps a Linux environment tends to provide the most benefit to a technical person with a sense of curiosity. In any case, it was a joy to help provide a variety of information to help people try things and broaden their horizons. I got to work with some really talented authors and make a difference to hundreds of thousands of people. Wow!

My new role is going to take me more behind the scenes. I'll still be enabling people to get their messages out, but in a greater variety of ways. It's all fairly new, so I don't really have stories to share. I have no doubt that I'll get food for blogging in my new role.

I will continue to use this space to talk about technology and social issues that I think make a difference. I'll continue share things that I do with Linux and open source so that others can explore them as well. As my activities become more varied I may have even more to share!

Scribus project

Along those lines, I recently had to put together a booklet for a non-IBM project. I had done the writing in a word processor, but when it came time to generate the final format I decided that I really wanted to work with a publishing tool rather than a word processor. In a previous role, ages back, I did a lot of work with Adobe PageMaker. I remember renting time on Macs at Kinko's to create signs, fliers and such. Once I designed a set of sample pages for an elementary level math book using PageMaker. The pages were being shown in an editorial meeting for a major textbook publisher and it was the first time they had gotten a printed mock-up as opposed to a literally pasted page. (That sounds ancient doesn't it?)

It's certainly possible to do a booklet in a word processor, and LibreOffice works fine for that. (Have you downloaded v4 yet?) However, a desktop publishing tool is designed for a greater degree of precision in layout. If you can get your head wrapped around the different approach to thinking you really get a more finished product. The most popular open source publisher project I am aware of is Scribus, and the last time I used it was to do an 8-page, full-color mini-magazine for a convention. I know that many will consider Scribus to be lacking as compared to a PageMaker or a Quark, but the $850 price tag on Quark makes it a little out of my reach, and it's not available for Linux. Scribus is free and available for Windows, Mac OS and Linux. I essentially had to wish for it and it was installed on my system. Here's a sample from their sourcforge gallery.

Of course, working with page layout is different from other kinds of content editing. Publishing programs are much more concerned with controlling how things look than helping you to write. It's literally like having a lot of little pieces of paper that you are going to paste onto a blank page. You assign what is on each little piece of paper, a graphic, some text, etc. Some of this is handled by "frames" in a word processor, but in layout software it just seems to be a little easier somehow... at least to me... depending on the project.

Because of the "pagey" nature of this application, it was easier for me to set up something to be how I wanted it and not have things move around on me when I changed something. I had a few challenges with setting up a dynamic Table of Contents, something that is almost magical in LibreOffice. I will probably review this tutorial by Bruce Byfield before my next document.

If you want to play with layout software, Scribus isn't a bad place to start. It will acquaint you with the basic concepts of layout, primarily separating your design concepts from your content. For a big project it might still be worth using a commercial product, but for a little newsletter, booklet or other projects where you are assimilating various elements into a single document, Scribus might do the trick.

Now, when I'm designing a single page, like a sign, postcard or flier, from scratch, I will tend to use Inkscape. I've even done large, full-color banners with this and enjoy it very much.

More adventures later. I'm tinkering with Blender, the free, open 3D modeling/animation/compositing software. If you think moving from word processing to page layout is mind blowing you just wait 'til you see what happens in this paradigm! I used Blender to create the header graphic for this blog. Everything is composed of 3D elements which were lit and moved around, then "photographed". It's pretty interesting stuff.

Thanks

For everyone who contributed to the Linux and open source areas on developerWorks for me, you have my sincerest gratitude. It was an honor to work with all of you. For the readers to gave feedback, sometimes in the most forceful ways, you have my gratitude as well. It's hard to function in a vacuum and your input constantly shaped my approach to what we covered and how. I look forward to my new adventure.

I was catching up on my slashdot
articles and found an interesting
note about a major computer manufacturer (hint: you'll find out who
it is if you follow the links) who has been dancing in and out of the closet issue about
supporting Linux as a viable option for users. Their latest round has
boiled things down between Windows and Ubuntu. They have made the
following conclusions about which choice you should make:

Choose
WINDOWS if:

You are already using WINDOWS programs
(e.g. Microsoft Office, ITunes etc) and want to continue using them

You are familiar with WINDOWS and do
not want to learn new programs for email, word processing etc

You are new to using computers

Choose UBUNTU
if:

You do not plan to use Microsoft
WINDOWS

You are interested in open source
programming

It's hard to argue with the points that if your
computing is largely wrapped in Windows proprietary software that you
should be using Windows. It's also hard to argue with the idea that you
should use Ubuntu
if you are interested in open source programming. I guess where I
disagree is that idea that Windows is the best starting place for
people who are new to computers.

I've been away from Windows for a while. I can
never completely escape it, because people I know who have Windows
still ask me for help with problems. I have noticed that as things have
passed through Window XP, then Vista then Windows 7 (Vista 2.0) that I
have more and more difficulty keeping up with how to configure things.
I can always find the answers with a quick web search, but the point is
that I have to look it up. If it was truly easy and intuitive then it
would naturally lead me to the answers. So, why would starting with
Windows put a new user at an advantage?

If you are new to computing then you don't have
any expectations. You are learning technologies from the beginning. At
that point I don't see that either system would make any difference to
you. Sure, you might have more Windows users to throw rocks at-- I mean
more Windows users within a stones' throw to help you out... but you
might also know a few people who use Linux. Ubuntu has an easy install,
an almost magical way of finding and installing software. The default
settings are all pretty reasonable for a typical user. It's designed to
connect you to the Internet and get you browsing with no special
software loads or changes.

In addition, someone new to computers would have
access to tools for art design, media editing, programming, security,
and any number of other interests. All they have to hit the button and
it's theirs. True, the applications may not be the most common
commercial editions of these tools, but this person is new. They are
trying to learn how technologies work. How better to introduce them
than to provide freely available resources that will let them
experiment. As an example, I'll give GIMP
(which has a
very nice article in the Open Source zone right now). GIMP stands
for the Gnu Image Manipulation Program. It's an editor that provides
enormous capabilities to edit photos and other pixel-based graphics
which you would use on the web and in documents. It rivals Adobe
Photoshop in its functions and I have actually used tutorials that were
written for Photoshop to learn skills in GIMP. Someone learning about
pixel-editing can learn a great deal with this tool and put out results
that are usable by anyone. (GIMP supports a ridiculous number of
graphic formats.) There are many other applications that are similar.

I really want to challenge this last point. In
fact, I think that someone new to computers who starts with Linux will
fail to develop a number of bad habits that seem to occur with people
who grow up with Windows. They'll find community assistance early on.
(The Ubuntu help forums are very friendly and usually provide
tutorial-quality answers for solving problems.) They'll learn that
there are options available for software and that they can and should
make choices when they select a tool. They'll grow with their curiosity
rather than be driven by fear that they may or may not be licensed
correctly for what they are doing.

I know many will disagree with me, but I'd love a
chance to take a group of kids and raise them through a Linux program
versus a Windows curriculum. I think the Linux kids will have a broader
more creative view of technology and will dive into a community-drive,
open, global world. I think they'll be people who look for solutions
rather than waiting for answers. It could be a beautiful thing.

Today I was pointed to the article "How would you fix the Linux desktop?" through slashdot. (Yes, another one of those articles.) I am quite comfortable using a Linux desktop and have been for nearly a decade, so it's not very mysterious to me. My family also uses Linux as a desktop with no real complaints. However, this seems to remain a controversy. It reminds me a little about my daughter talking about her school lunch.

My daughter just turned ten. The other day she was talking about all of the terrible things they are doing at the school cafeteria. They've removed some of the dishes she liked and put, in her opinion, poor alternatives in their place. I should say that my daughter is not a pizza and hot dogs sort of diner. She likes sushi and different kinds of vegetables when they are well prepared. Her description of what was going on did sound a little poor, but it's an institution's approach to being told to provide more "healthy choices" while also adhering to a giant list of restrictions, primarily budgetary. I would probably eat it, but not look forward to it. I suggested that my daughter could always take her lunch and we could keep them interesting. I don't think she even heard me.

We have a lot of choices that we would rather not act on. "I hate my job," says someone... but doesn't really want to leave and find another one. "I hate the environment in my city," says another... but won't move someplace where they say they'd be happier. We complain, but we don't act, because we are not so unsatisfied that we think it's worth the effort to make a change. This truth means that most complaints fall on deaf ears because providers know that we likely won't do anything. If Walmart knew that "I'm never shopping here again" didn't have a silent "unless I find that I'm desparate for something and everyplace else is closed, or I happen to be somewhere and Walmart is the only place I recognize, or I know I need something cheap" then they would probably be a lot more attentive.

So, in desktop land, though people might be disapointed with their Windows or MacOS experience, they likely won't really try to make a move. Once the disappointment is voiced it has been served and one can simply get on with things.

Some say that the problem is not enough applications and that there are barriers to writing applications that work across Linux desktops. I don't know how true that is. I regularly play with different desktops on my Linux installation (you can change it every time you log in if desired). All of the programs I run work fine across the desktops... though the experience changes slightly as the desktop features rearrange. It seems that it is largely a matter of the application letting go of the things that the desktop does rather than trying to emulate them. Maybe I'm missing something.

There are really only about a dozen things that most people do with a computer. Applications exist for those. Developers of popular software could provide a LInux version as easily as they provide a version for Windows and Mac OS. Arguably, if they started to use some of the existing open development techniques that are used for Linux applications they could more easily write things that run on all of the operating systems with single code base. There are several examples of this in existing open-source software.

People don't use the Linux desktop because they just don't care for the most part. They use whatever they're given. If IT turned around and gave them a Linux desktop and managent said it was the new policy people would use it. Oh, they would complain, just like people do about the store they go back to again and again, but they wouldn't quit their job over it. As long as someone has to make an effort to be different, it will only be those who already do that sort of thing in their lives who take on Linux, and discover the benefits it gives them. Everyone who prefers to "go with the flow" can discover what flows downhill.

One of the resources that comes into my mailbox is a publication called ITWire out of Australia. I enjoy getting a different perspective on people using technology, though every once in a while I get confused when they talk about technology issues up before their government.

Today was a fun piece called "A Win-Lin situation: moving a small office over to Linux." It's yet another example of someone making the move to Linux successfully. Their solution uses a Wine solution with Crossover Linux to allow some Windows programs to run in the new environment. If your business is absolutely bound to Windows applications then you really have no choice but to use such a solution. However, I would personally be very uncomfortable being held hostage by a piece of software like that... but that's an individual choice. The point is, that what on its face appeared to be an insurmountable obstacle to a Linux environment had an answer. It simply took someone with a strong Linux background to help work out the details.

If you are a Linux advocate, remember the amount of fear that some people have about technology. It really is a fear. It may not be a rational fear to you, but we all have some sort of thing that makes us irrationally uncomfortable. Maybe it's speaking in public. Maybe it's dealing with certain kinds of people. Maybe it's heights, or snakes or blood. If you have such a thing, try to realize that there are people who are just as nervous about technology. They don't need to be told how illogical or ignorant they are. They need to be reassured by someone who can confidently lead them to the answer. Get arrogant at this stage and the answer is simple: "No! because you're a jerk!"

I'm sure that the above paragraph really doesn't apply to any of my readers here. You are all helpful people who have your eye on the best technology for the job and creating an environment that is productive and easy-to-maintain. Keep your eye open for examples like the one above and learn what you can from them. Use them to help answer questions for people who just have no idea what Linux offers or why you would want to change.

A champion is supposed to help protect the weak. In your case, you are a knight in shining penguin armor who can lead the charge to a better way. Do with with honor and respect for those you protect. Lead them forward!